Data-Driven Pressure Drop Prediction in Corrugated Pipe Extrusion: A Production-Based Power Law Approach

While data fitting is extensively used in polymer processing to extract fundamental rheological properties, its application for direct macroscopic geometric transfer between complex operational dies remains largely unexplored. Optimizing extrusion dies for corrugated plastic pipes traditionally requires time-consuming offline laboratory rheology, creating a major development bottleneck when dealing with proprietary, undocumented blends. To address this gap, this study introduces a novel, data-driven protocol for predicting the die pressure drop that eliminates the need for independent laboratory rheometry. Unlike traditional in situ methods that seek pure material properties, our approach back-calculates lumped, effective Power Law parameters directly from macroscopic pressure drops of existing converging dies. This uniquely embeds both material and geometric flow characteristics under actual processing conditions. Experimental validation demonstrates that this workflow, supported by an iterative refinement strategy, yields prediction errors typically within 10%. Ultimately, this lightweight computational tool provides engineers with a rapid-iteration framework to significantly accelerate early-stage die design.